Cut

Cut a stencil

Bob Tucker cutting a stencil for Le Zombie in his fan den in the mid-1950s. Photo by Bob Madle.

To type on a mimeograph stencil. By extension, also to draw directly on or otherwise deface a stencil.

Some fans preferred to type on paper, rather than on stencil, then electrostencil the typed page. This allowed the typist to read material more easily before immortalizing it by mimeography. ("A cut stencil is sacred." — Wm. Rotsler.) It also allowed reducing the print to little teeny tiny letters and getting more words on a page. Unfortunately, it also costs more, since an electrostencil cost about ten times as much as a regular stencil.

Delete sections of copy

To edit out portions of written material to make it shorter and more concise -- something not indulged in enough by faneds and fanwriters, especially now that online publishing provides infinite space for blathering.

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Publishing